Baldwin: Back off our brats, beer

6:03 PM,
Apr. 4, 2014

Tammy Baldwin

Written by

Donovan Slack
Gannett Washington Bureau

Europeans negotiating a free trade deal with the United States have been angling to reserve names like "feta" and "parmesan" only for cheese made in Europe. As it turns out, they also want to mandate that beer names like "Oktoberfest" and meat monikers like, yes, "bratwurst" be allowed only on European-produced beer and sausages.

With Wisconsin's veritable Holy Trinity at risk -- cheese, brats and beer -- Sen. Tammy Baldwin jumped into action Friday, persuading a bipartisan group of colleagues to sign on to letters to U.S. trade negotiators urging them to ...